Between 2014 and 2017, GBEP carried out activities under a dedicated group on “Bioenergy and water”, led by IEA Bionergy. The goal of this activity group was to identify and disseminate ways of integrating bioenergy systems into agriculture and forestry landscapes to improve sustainable management of water resources. This included sharing knowledge and experiences on best management practices as well as on policies and instruments supporting bioenergy implementation that contributes positively to the state of water. The activity group served as a vehicle for awareness raising on the GBEP sustainability indicators on water and spreading the use of them to other countries and regions.

Water quantity and quality have been identified as emerging issues of concern in the bioenergy field, yet there is evidence that bioenergy systems can be designed and managed in such a way as to improve adaptation to water constraints and optimise overall resource management.

The activity group launched a call for evidence to show that there are many encouraging examples of how good management of resources - benefiting from complementarity of different systems - can provide food, bioenergy and biomaterials while improving the state of water.

The submissions received in response were reviewed and the most relevant among them were selected to be presented at a workshop organized in Stockholm, Sweden. All of these examples, plus an additional eight more, were compiled to produce the report on “Examples of positive bioenergy and water relationships”, published in February 2016.

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